Actor will tackle Shakespeare's most popular tragedy at Lincoln Center this fall.

After Before Midnight — and The Purge — Ethan Hawke is headed back to Broadway, to play Shakespeare's most popular tortured protagonist.

Hawke will step into the title role of Macbeth this fall, in a new Lincoln Center Theater production helmed by veteran director Jack O'Brien, who previously guided the actor in Henry IV and Tom Stoppard's epic The Coast of Utopia.

In case you're keeping count, this will be the 48th Broadway production of the play that dare not speak its name; Alan Cumming can currently be seen in the 47th, in which he tackles all the major roles. Hawke will unveil his Macbeth Oct. 24, with an official opening set for Nov. 21.

Lincoln Center Theater's 2013-14 season will also include Act One, adapted from Moss Hart's autobiography and directed by James Lapine, beginning performances March 20; and, off-Broadway, Domesticated, a new play by Bruce Norris, the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Clybourne Park, starring Laurie Metcalf and starting previews Oct. 10.